Genesis 16

International Children’s Bible

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children. She had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. ² Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children. So have physical relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her.”

Abram did what Sarai said. ³ This was after Abram lived ten years in Canaan. And Sarai gave Hagar to her husband Abram. (Hagar was her slave girl from Egypt.)

⁴ Abram had physical relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you. And when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”

⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “You are Hagar’s mistress. Do anything you want to her.” Then Sarai was hard on Hagar, and Hagar ran away.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert. The spring was by the road to Shur. ⁸ The angel said, “Hagar, you are Sarai’s slave girl. Where have you come from? Where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go home to your mistress and obey her.” ¹⁰ The angel of the Lord also said, “I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.”

¹¹ The angel also said to her,

¹³ The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her. She said to him, “You are ‘God who sees me.’” This is because she said to herself, “Have I really seen God who sees me?” ¹⁴ So the well there was called Beer Lahai Roi.^[b] It is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram. And Abram named him Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.